Dwight Brock denies exerting influence on Collier commission races

Clerk of Court Dwight Brock, center, is surrounded by his employees after working with the Collier County Commission to solve budget disagreements at the commission's meeting Sept. 29, 2009, in Naples. Brock threatened to shut down non-court operations by the end of Wednesday if the commission did not give him money that was previously negotiated. David Albers/ Staff

Henning is pictured bending over Collier County Clerk of Courts Dwight Brock's left shoulder, looking into the camera and smiling, as Brock sits at his desk paging through an audit report.

Brock, who faces his own Republican primary challenger Tuesday, says he is staying out of the County Commission races on Tuesday's ballot but, as the Henning mailer and interviews with candidates and political observers show, Brock is at least hovering over them.

Three commissioners — Brock political foes Donna Fiala and Jim Coletta and Brock ally Henning — face Republican primary challengers in races that could shift the balance of power on the commission and make it more friendly to Brock, who is engaged in a long and bitter power struggle with the County Commission over his oversight of county finances.

"I don't have any desire to influence the outcome of those races other than with my vote," Brock said last week.

His critics, though, cite Brock's campaign appearances — his own and at other candidates' events — where he rails against the County Commission's handling of a legal fracas over Brock's auditing powers and holds himself up as a government watchdog looking out for the taxpayers in the face of county resistance.

Brock said he does not see his appearances as endorsing Henning or Fiala's and Coletta's challengers, but as an "expression of frustration" over the costs of the six-year fight that he calls "ridiculous."

Brock sued commissioners in 2004 after the county prevented him from auditing rural fire district bank accounts he said contained county money. Commissioners sued him back. Brock won the case, and then won an appeal. Commissioners appealed all the way to the Florida Supreme Court, which refused to hear the case in 2010.

"If you had been through six years of that would you not be just a little bit miffed that had taken place?" Brock asked last week.

Fiala said she sees Brock's campaigning as commission bashing with a purpose.

"That to me is (Brock doing his part) to support the takeover," she said. "He just does anything he can to make us look bad. It's a shame."

Coletta chalked up Brock's alliances with Hiller, Henning and Coletta's challenger, retired agribusiness manager Tim Nance, to a bid for control that he calls "pretty amazing."

"He's still trying to manipulate the outcome of events directly and indirectly from his office," Coletta said.

In 2010, Brock made no secret of his support for then-candidate Georgia Hiller, who succeeded retiring incumbent Commissioner Frank Halas and now often forms a two-vote minority on the five-member commission with Henning.

The two have been on the losing end of votes to get a third-party cost-benefit analysis of taxpayer contributions to Ave Maria, to stop a new contract for the county's red-light cameras after Brock raised questions about the original and to require a supermajority vote to amend zoning to clear the way for Maine-based Jackson Lab to open a satellite operation in eastern Collier County.

Hiller could not be reached for comment last week, but Henning and Nance said they don't see themselves as political benefactors of Brock and his backers. That hasn't stopped either Henning or Nance from invoking Brock.

Nance called Brock a popular public figure who has credibility in Collier County.

"Anything positive he has to say about me I take with a great deal of pride," Nance said.

Besides the photo with Brock in one of his mailers, a second Henning mailer features a complimentary quote from Brock: "It is important that all elected officials work together for the betterment of our community. This is why I value Tom Henning, along with the experience he brings to the Commission."

Brock said the quote does not violate his no-endorsement pledge. It should be viewed in the context of Henning's refusal to fight Brock over his auditing powers, not in the context of a political endorsement, Brock said.

In an email responding to a reporter's questions, Henning wrote that he does not see Brock exerting influence over his race with mining company owner Bill McDaniel.McDaniel, though, said the "big grudge" between Brock on one side and Fiala and Coletta on the other is overshadowing the primary election despite Brock's pledge to stay neutral.

"That hasn't necessarily been the case now has it?" McDaniel said. "He's there."

A political action committee that opposes McDaniel is getting donated computer services from Chuck Roth, who also is donating similar services to Brock. A blast email targeting McDaniel was sent with Brock's name attached rather than the PAC's name. Roth has said he used a computer template he had used for a Brock message but forgot to remove Brock's name.

Brock called McDaniel to apologize, and McDaniel said he doesn't believe Brock was involved in sending the anti-McDaniel PAC message: "I'm not throwing rocks at Dwight."

Nance and Henning both dismiss the view that Brock can deliver votes to them. In his email, Henning wrote he knows of two of his campaign volunteers who won't be voting for Brock.

Said Nance: "I think people are looking for two camps (pro-Brock and anti-Brock), they're expecting these two groups of people out there fighting each other and I don't think it exists."

Nance has benefited financially, though, from Pelican Bay, where support is high for Brock and Hiller, whose district includes the North Naples neighborhood. Contributors with a Pelican Bay ZIP code have donated almost $12,000 to Nance's campaign.

One of the check writers said Pelican Bay is fed up with the way the county is being run, citing the neighborhood's opposition to a planned beach facility at Vanderbilt Beach and the county's pursuit of a dredging permit for nearby Clam Bay.

Good government is not what Collier County will get should a new three-vote majority emerge on the County Commission with Henning, Hiller and Nance, Commission Chairman Fred Coyle said.

"It will probably be four years of witch hunts rather than productive business," Coyle said. "They want to destroy (Collier County government). It's that simple."

The winner of the Henning-McDaniel race will get a seat on the commission dais, but the winners of the other two primaries still face opposition in the general election in November. Pharmacist Russell Kish is running with no party affiliation for Fiala's seat. Immokalee resident John Lundin is running as a Democrat for Coletta's seat.

Nance, saying he doesn't have a "huge fixed agenda" and will work for consensus, eschewed the idea that his election would create a new majority voting bloc on the Commission.

"I think it's premature for anybody to say what's going to happen with me in that position," he said.

Henning also said he does not foresee a shift of power on the commission should he and Nance both win but envisions an "end to today's present bloc voting and getting back to a true form of representation with individual ideas, individual voting and not always agreeing with a certain commissioner."

McDaniel said the capacity of the public to trust its politicians is at stake with the outcome of the election, but Fiala said she fears that no matter who wins, the community already has lost.

"There's been so much anger that has been bred and spewed out there, I don't know how we're ever going to overcome all this," Fiala said.